‘On the expiration of speech’: children’s spirituality in time of war

Abstract

This paper adopts an under‐labouring role, seeking to support those engaged on the front‐line of the challenge of dealing with children’s spirituality in time of war. It suggests that the post‐Enlightenment notion of spirituality as the exploration of inner‐space is dislocated from reality and consequently generates a nihilistic subjectivity incapable of resisting the forces of totalitarianism and violence. The urgent need to pursue the ontological link between spiritual experience and the ultimate order‐of‐things can only be met if we acknowledge our epistemic limitations. This being the case, and in the light of liberalism’s own commitment to critical openness, it is suggested that the hegemony of liberal monophonic discourse could fruitfully give way to a genuine polyphony of liberal and non‐liberal, theological and secular, voices.

Keywords:

• spirituality
• war
• speech